1. Field
The present specification relates to a mobile terminal device, and more particularly, to technology that reduces the steps until communication is initiated with a specific contact.
2. Description of Related Art
Hitherto, communication with a specific contact has been conducted by placing a telephony call to the specific contact using a mobile terminal device or by using a text communication tool of a mobile phone device. Known text communication tools include electronic mail, SNS (Social Network Services), and Twitter (registered trademark).
When communicating with a specific contact by telephony, an address book may be activated and a contact address for the contact may be selected from among registered contact addresses. Otherwise, a contact may be specified by utilizing an outgoing or incoming call history, a history of sent and received electronic mail, or an incoming call or electronic mail notification.
For example, consider the case of utilizing an incoming electronic mail (hereinafter also simply designated “mail”) notification to call the sender of the mail. In this case, the user is required to perform steps like those given below. First, the user selects an incoming mail notification issued with a popup message, etc. and causes the received mail to be displayed. Next, the user selects an “Options” or similar menu on a screen displaying details of the incoming mail, and selects a “Call” item from a menu displayed as an options menu. Alternatively, the user presses a Call button provided on the mobile terminal device while in the state where the received mail is displayed on-screen.
In the case of utilizing an incoming mail notification to reply to a mail sender by mail, the user is required to select an “Options” menu on a screen displaying the received mail and then select “Reply to mail” from the displayed options menu.
In this way, the user is required to perform many steps, even when responding to a contact who has contacted the user him- or herself. PTL 1, in order to decrease such burdens imposed on the user, describes a technique for reducing the number of necessary steps for initiating telephony with a given contact by utilizing the slide function of a sliding mobile phone.